Manohar Publishers and Distributors: 10/10/12

10 October, 2012

Caste: The Emergence of the South Asian Social System

By- Morton Klass

How and why did the caste system emerge in South Asia? Why do contemporary anthropologists and Indologists experience so much difficulty with this problem?

Morton Klass addresses both these questions in this book, and the result is an intellectual adventure story, an essay in ethnohistorical deduction and reconstruction.

Klass begins by examining the assumptions underlying the older explanations of the origin of caste, tracing their roots in dubious history, ethnocentrism, and outmoded theory. Then, using contemporary anthropological writings on ecology, economy, social structure, and cultural evolution, he develops a scenario in which caste emerges as a transformation of an earlier clan structure that until now has been considered an evolutionary ‘dead end’.

His radically new explanation is the result of a pioneering effort in theoretical synthesis. By employing the tools of what he calls ‘eclectic anthropology’—an approach frequently attacked by proponents of more rigid and exclusionary strategies—he brings together elements from the seemingly unconnectable approaches of such major theorists as Claude Levi-Strauss. Marvin Harris, and Karl Polanyi. Caste offers a challenge to scholars to free themselves of their theoretical fetters, to open themselves to ideas from all corners of their discipline.

Morton Klass is Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University. He has conducted fieldwork in India and among people of South Asian descent in the West Indies.

ISBN 978-81-7304-259-1 2004 238p. Rs.200/Pounds 18.99

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Bullion for Goods: European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1500-1800

By- Om Prakash

The spectacular rise in world trade following the great discoveries of the closing years of the fifteenth century had important implications for each of the major segments of the newly emerging early modern international economy. As far as Asia was concerned, the commercial operations of the European corporate enterprises as well as private traders in the Indian Ocean region between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries had far-reaching consequences for the economies and the polities of the countries of the region. Asian merchants engaged in the Indian Ocean trade interacted with the European intruders into the Ocean in a variety of ways.

The twenty-one essays included in this volume are firmly embedded in original archival sources. They deal mainly with issues arising out of the Europeans’ commercial presence in the Indian Ocean region and the interaction they had with their Asian counterparts. The volume discusses how over a span of three centuries, the Indian economy was integrated into the world economy as a result of these interactions. The macroeconomic implications of the European encounter for the Indian economy are analysed in detail. Another important area explored at some length is the monetary history of the subcontinent in the early modern period.

This collection of essays will be of interest of the historians of India and of the Indian Ocean. It will also have a great deal of appeal for the historians of early modern Asia as well as Europe. Those interested in what is being increasingly described as world history will also find the volume useful.

Om Prakash is Professor of Economic History at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

ISBN 978-81-7304-538-7 2004 426p. Rs.850/Pounds 60